Niall Maurici, 25, who works at Henry Jones in Hobart, is one five Australians competing for a ticket to Russia as part of Bacardi Legacy cocktail-making competition.Source: News Limited

BARTENDER Niall Maurici captured a little of the spirit of Tasmania in a cocktail he has invented for an international competition.

Mr Maurici’s The Simple Word has earned him a place in the national finals for the Bacardi Legacy Cocktail Competition, and if successful in Sydney on March 4 he could be flying to Moscow to take a shot at the world title.

A bartender at the Long Bar at the Henry Jones Art Hotel, the 24-year-old has been working behind the bar since he was 18 and said there was a renewed interest in cocktails.

“People’s palates are becoming more refined, we’re not so interested in the sweet mixed drinks of the 1970s but something more aromatic and more adult,” he said.

“The trend in cocktails these days is a reversion to the classics and a resurgence of lots of old spirits that haven’t existed for a while, like rye whiskey.”